The Cassandra Page

"And indeed, the burden of Cassandra's "gift" is evident in mythology. She predicted the outcome of many disastrous events. In one memorable example, Cassandra announced the dire consequences of the Trojans accepting the infamous Wooden Horse from their Greek opponents. But as Apollo made certain, no one believed Cassandra when she warned her companions about the future. And this, in the end, was to be Cassandra's tragic fate."

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Bruce Walker commemorates the 30th anniversary of the Jonestown cult suicides in American Thinker:

Jonestown ended in mass suicide, but the real horror was that ordinary people, Americans like you and I, had become so decoupled from reality and morality that they could be led to surrender everything, even their lives, intoxicated only with the venom of modern Leftism. These were Orwell's Children.

We are drifting into the sort of horrific future he described. Too many of us for comfort or solace have become just like the denizens of Jonestown: Orwell's children -- a new generation of creature enraged into constant militancy against eternal enemies, oblivious to the notion of a Blessed Creator, melded into the consciousness of the party hive, divorced from history, hypnotized by images, inoculated against reason, stripped of family, and existing only to serve the cause.

Jim Jones was not simply "another religious preacher" as the left has (and will) undoubtedly repeat. He was a leftist who used leftist tactics and methods:

Jim Jones, the communist leader of Jonestown, Guyana, had become "Big Brother." Soviet and Communist Chinese propaganda films and condemnations of capitalist and imperialist America blared continually to the subjects of this island of Leftist Hell.

In other words, Jonestown was like a DNC convention or editorial board meeting at the New York Times.

Also, read my post from 2007, in which I detail some of the connections between Jones and the San Francisco Democrat machine. Jones was as responsible as any other single individual for the Democrat takeover of San Francisco city politics. The politicians of the San Francisco Democrat party (including some famous names) rewarded him well.

Monday, November 17, 2008

Praetorian Guard; Augustus; Obama

Ever since Obama's proposal to create a civilian national defense force and his creation of the shadowy tax free foundation, the term "praetorian guard" (and worse) has been used to describe what is really going on. Here is one historian's discussion of the Praetorian Guard in ancient Rome.

Caesar Augustus was Rome's first permament emporer, succeeding Julius Caesar who was assassinated after a brief reign. Julius Caesar did not institutionalize the empire. But Augustus (taking total power circa 30 B.C.) undertook many steps to make the empire permanent. One of these steps was the insertion of the military in a permament way in Roman politics:

Further to assure order of the desired kind, and support his own power, Augustus, seriously violating precedent, kept six cohorts of a thousand soldiers each near Rome and three cohorts within it. These nine cohorts became the Praetorian Guard - i.e., guard of the praetorium, or headquarters of the commander in chief. It was this body that in A.D. 41 made Claudius emporer and began the subjection of the government to the army.

Durant, Caesar and Christ, p. 216

While Obama's proposals are a far cry from military dictatorship, all such transitions begin slowly. Neither Obama nor any of his successors will someday announce that they are imposing a dictatorship. It will happen gradually. The Roman transition was much more obvious and identifiable.

For Obama to institutionalize his election year supporters into a permanent force, using taxpayer and tax-free dollars, that will work to keep Obama or his successors in power is a subtle, yet distinctive move in the direction of empire and away from constitutional government.

Saturday, November 15, 2008

Obama to tamper with 401(k)'s, IRA's.

It’s still more than two months before the Obama administration takes office, and we are already seeing signs of just how the Democrats intend to govern.

One proposal being floated by Congressional Democrats aims to abolish the tax incentives for individual 401(k) retirement plans. With the recent financial meltdown having hit a lot of people’s funds heavily, those lawmakers think that the time would be ripe to end the private system and fold it into an expansion of Social Security.

The current plan, crafted by Professor Teresa Ghilarducci of the New School of Social Research in New York City, would eliminate tax breaks for these retirement plans. This would be coupled to an increase in Social Security taxes to fund an expanded retirement plan for workers.

Any plan to tinker with IRA's or 401(k)'s would not only constitute theft of the life savings of American workers, but also would cripple new investment in the stock market. For years, a major selling point for continued investment in the stock market has been the projected future influx of additional 401(k) money. Because so much 401(k) money would be available, the argument went, stocks could not help but increase in value regardless of the fundamentals. While that argument has proven to be flawed, any government plan to undermine retirement programs would destroy one of the last good things the stock market has going for it.

Any such action would also make Social Security even more precarious, as retirees would not have their own retirement plans to rely on, but would be more dependant on Social Security.

The Federal Reserve is refusing to identify the recipients of almost $2 trillion of emergency loans from American taxpayers or the troubled assets the central bank is accepting as collateral.

H/T Bloomberg

This item from Lancaster, PA provides some insight into how the money is being spent and a brief mention of the real cause of the meltdown (and the business cycles we have endured for 100 years):

The Treasury Department's $700 billion rescue plan is best known for propping up wobbly financial institutions.

But the plan also has a provision for healthy ones, figuring they can help guide the economy back on track.

Fulton Financial Corp. said Thursday it has applied to get $375 million in capital under that government-investment initiative, the Capital Purchase Program.

"If we get it, our intention is to use it to provide additional loans," Fulton Financial's Charles J. Nugent said today.

Since banks generally loan 10 times their amount of capital, an extra $375 million in capital potentially could lead to an extra $3.75 billion in loans, he explained.

emphasis added

I did not know that the multiplier was as high as ten, but I knew that this process exists. Ask yourself, how does a bank loan "10 times their amount of capital. . . "? Where do they get the money to make such loans, if such loans do not represent actual capital? In the above example, where does the other $3.4 billion come from?

The answer is found in our system of fractional reserve banking. The system (and its consequences) are described (in layman's terms) in "The Bubble that Broke the World" and "America's Great Depression." Knowing how a bank can take $375 Million and create $3.75 billion in loans would be a tremendous step in understanding how our financial system collapsed this year.

Praetorian Guard; Obama 501(c)(4); "Obama/Biden Transition Project"

Lost amid all of the jubilation of the Obama victory was the announcement by the Obama transition team that it had set up a separate transition program beyond the one that is paid for by the American taxpayer. Called the "Obama/Biden Transition Project," it is a 501(c)4 tax-exempt organization, with no limits on the contributions it can receive and no requirements to divulge the names of individuals or organizations that give it money.. . . .No one is certain that any political organization has ever set up a tax-exempt entity that would be shrouded in such secrecy, particularly when Obama claimed he would be more transparent about the way things were done.

"To my knowledge, it's never been done, and people should be asking why the Obama people chose to do it this way," says a longtime Washington Republican, who has been involved in transitions for the Reagan and Bush campaign teams.............As well, the nonprofit may also serve as a haven for Obama supporters and campaign loyalists who for one reason or another can't be employed by the Administration or in the federal government. "There are some people who have been with us from the beginning who are clearly political liabilities or who won't be able to qualify for a job, say, because they can't get a security clearance," says another aide, who was unaware of the unique Obama transition project's tax status.

Regardless of the purpose, Obama campaign officials say there is no intention of shutting down the 501(c) 4 Project after the transition is over.

Thursday, November 06, 2008

Change you can believe in; Obama campaign workers unpaid.

I am not sure if this means anything, but I am documenting it just in case it becomes part of a trend or pattern.

Indianapolis - Lines were long and tempers flared Wednesday not to vote but to get paid for canvassing for Barack Obama. Several hundred people are still waiting to get their pay for last-minute campaigning. Police were called to the Obama campaign office on North Meridian Street downtown to control the crowd.

The large gathering of around 375 people prompted police to call in extra officers and set up temporary barricades. The barricades helped keep the crowd from spilling out onto Meridian Street. Police say the several hundred people in line were for the most part orderly...

"Talking about they'll mail it to us. I ain't worried about that, man. They're not going to mail nothin'," said Martin.

I wonder what it will be like waiting in line to see a Doctor once Obama goes Canada on our health care system.

But no-one tried to stop the Islamist officials, who were armed, the witness said. He said one boy was shot in the confusion.

According to Amnesty International, nurses were sent to check during the stoning whether the victim was still alive. They removed her from the ground and declared that she was, before she was replaced so the stoning could continue.

- - - - - - - - - - - - -

The port of Kismayo was seized in August by a coalition of forces loyal to rebel leader Hassan Turki, and al-Shabab, the country's main radical Islamist insurgent organisation.

Mr Turki is on the US list of "financers of terrorism".

Will we still even bother to maintain this list after today? Or will the list, instead, be turned over to the DNC campaign finance committee?

Meanwhile, Islamic immigration into the U.S. will continue unabated. But back to our story:

It was the first reported execution by stoning in the southern port city since Islamist insurgents captured it.

The BBC had a reporter in the area, but he was shot dead in Kismayo in June.

Monday, November 03, 2008

Summary of Obama administration predictions.

The following items can be reasonably expected from an Obama administration:

Price controls may make gasoline unattainable to a greater extent than we suffered during the Carter administration, while coal generating plants are forced into bankruptcy, resulting in the virtual destruction of the economy and the subsidized relocation of millions of Americans from their homes.

Class warfare (and even outright violence) will increase, destroying productivity, the means of production and our standard of living.

Obama will create a praetorianguard for the ostensible purpose of community organizing and volunteer charity type work, but the effect will be to find government employment for legions of his supporters that will help enforce his other programs against the majority of Americans and ensure his continued power during all of the chaos that Obama's other programs will create.

All of these predictions are based on Obama's own statements, longstanding Democrat policy and programs, current discussions among Democrats in Congress and experiments by similar governments abroad. Some of these policies have been tried in the past, namely price controls, with disastrous results. Others have been implemented by modern, industrialized countries, with even more disastrous results. Most of these programs have been implemented by great civilizations of the past, all of which were destroyed in the chaos that followed.

We will not recognize the United States after 4 years of an Obama administration. The economic damage at home can be predicted from some of the links above (using ancient civilizations as a model). The consequences for the rest of the world will be increased war and chaos, further advances by Islam and increased UN control, the effects of which will continue far beyond Obama's term (if it actually ends). The damage, at home and abroad, will be too great for any moderate Republican to correct in one term or 10 terms.

Sunday, November 02, 2008

Go here to find the speech Neville Chamberlain presented to Parliament upon his return from England after surrendering to Hitler at Munich. This speech will give us a preview of the method Obama will use to explain the surrender of Iraq to Iran or some other ally to some other enemy. He will focus on the need for international control of the process as opposed to the pros and cons of losing an ally:

To those who dislike an ultimatum, but who were anxious for a reasonable and orderly procedure, every one of [the] modifications [of the Godesberg Memorandum by the Munich Agreement] is a step in the right direction. It is no longer an ultimatum, but is a method which is carried out largely under the supervision of an international body.

Nowhere does Chamberlain defend the occupation of a portion of Checkoslvakia by Germany. He simply focuses throughout his speech on the best way to accomplish that goal without the risk of "extremists" provoking a fight. We will hear more of this kind of talk over the next few years. Obama's main goal will be to pacify the rest of us while surrendering our strategic positions abroad and placing anti-American countries in positions of strength.

Predictions for Obama administration; Coal

Even though you have already seen the film, I have downloaded and uploaded it here with a separate program because Youtube videos have a habit of disappearing.

We already suspected that he would effectively make gasoline off limits to ordinary Americans. Without coal, we will be unable to heat and light our homes or businesses. The loss of jobs goes well beyond the 120,000 referenced in the film. When businesses can no longer afford heat or light, the loss of jobs will be catastrophic. The damage to our economy will be permanent. Those jobs won't return just because a moderate Republican might be elected in 2012 to replace Obama.

We have heard much this year about Obama and his connection with William Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn (and the Weather Underground terrorist group) despite the MSM/DNC blackout on this subject. But we have not heard much about Dohrn's endorsement of Charles Manson and the Manson gang's 1969 murder spree. Frontpage fills in some details:

In 1969, Ayers and his wife convened a "War Council" in Flint Michigan, whose purpose was to launch a military front inside the United States with the purpose of helping Third World revolutionaries conquer and destroy it. Taking charge of the podium, dressed in a high-heeled boots and a leather mini-skirt – her signature uniform – Dorhn incited the assembled radicals to join the war against "Amerikkka" and create chaos and destruction in the "belly of the beast." Her voice rising to a fevered pitch, Dohrn raised three fingers in a "fork salute" to mass murderer Charles Manson whom she proposed as a symbol to her troops. Referring to the helpless victims of the Manson Family as the "Tate Eight" (the most famous was actress Sharon Tate) Dohrn shouted:

Dig It. First they killed those pigs, then they ate dinner in the same room with them, they even shoved a fork into a victim’s stomach! Wild!

This is not just "another bad thing" that Dohrn and Ayers did [that Obama will claim no responsibility for despite his alliance with those two people]. My point is not simply that "Dohrn is bad, and Obama should not be her friend" [although that is quite a legitimate point]. Dohrn's endorsement of Manson means much more than that. Dohrn's endorsement of Manson is symbolic of the race war that the left has promoted for decades.

Manson used the term "Helter Skelter" to describe his goals at the time of the murders. "Helter Skelter" now has many meanings, as individuals have used the term to describe generally chaotic situations. But Manson had a specific meaning in mind. He planned to use the killing spree to ignite a race war.

Manson believed that the Tate murders would be blamed on black people and that whites would retaliate, thus sparking a race war, resulting in the death of all whites (except for Manson and his gang, who would be in hiding). Manson would then be free to emerge from hiding and rule the black people that remained. According to witness testimony, Manson's plans for the African-American were quite clear:

Charlie would scratch his fuzzy head and kick him in the butt and tell him to go pick the cotton and go be a good nigger, and he would live happily ever after . . .

What does this have to do with the election of 2008? The left has promotedrace hostility in every election (including this one), and in every issue, for decades. Since the O.J. trial, the tactic has been called, "playing the race card." But the practice began much earlier than that.

In short, the left and the MSM/DNC have been trying, over the course of several decades, to do what Manson wanted to do with a brief murder spree. The left has simply found a more effective and less obvious way of carrying out those plans. Manson is locked up and forgotten as the deranged psychopath that he was, but the left moves toward the same goals (using slower and surer means). While those on the left (except for Dohrn/Ayers) may not appreciate all that they share with Manson (or even know who he is), the similar goals do exist.

More specifically, we saw what plans Manson had for the African-Americans that would emerge victorious from Manson's Helter Skelter race war. The question now arises, what plans does Manson's admirer Bernardine Dohrn have for Barack Obama, now that Obama is apparently poised to seize power in America? How do Dohrn and Ayers really view Obama? While Manson most likely did not let any African-Americans in on his plans in 1969, did Dohrn share her goals with Obama during Obama's rise to power? Who is the follower and who is the leader? Remember that Ayers and Dohrn are not simply radicals who live in Obama's neighborhood. Ayers and Dohrn were instrumental in Obama's rise to power and the funding of his early activities and campaigns, including Obama's association with ACORN. Is Bernardine Dohrn set to fulfill Charles Manson's vision as a result of this week's election? Only time will tell.

Saturday, November 01, 2008

Argentina is now effectively broke, and the government of Cristina Kirchner has expropriated the country's private pension plans to obtain cash.

Further research revealed this. Does anyone really think that Obama won't try to do the same thing? Even if he does not do this, he will lay the groundwork for a successor who will find it that much easier to seize our IRA's and 401(k)'s.